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JINAN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- A new freight train linking east China's Shandong Province with Milan, Italy, started service Friday, making it the newest China-Europe freight train route.

A 41-container train carrying clothing, electronic products, and machinery departed from Yanzhou North railway station in Jining, on Friday morning. The train will run every Friday.

The 10,900-km journey, which makes a stop in Chengdu for customs clearance, will take 18 days, said Zhang Benhong, deputy head of the railway station.

BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's new countermeasures to impose additional tariffs on about 60 billion U.S. dollars worth of products from the United States are "rational and restrained," a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday.

The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council on Friday unveiled lists of 5,207 items of U.S. products to be subject to additional tariffs of four different rates -- 25 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent, and 5 percent.

BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday announced its decision to impose additional tariffs of four different rates on 5,207 items of imported U.S. products worth 60 billion U.S. dollars.

The rates of additional tariffs on such products will be 25 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent, and 5 percent, according to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.

"China was forced to take the countermeasures" in response to a U.S. plan to raise tariffs to be imposed on 200 billion dollars of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent, the commission said in a statement.

Beijing, Aug 3 (AFP) Beijing warned today it was prepared to impose new tariffs on 60 billion worth of US goods if Washington ups the ante in the escalating US-China trade war.

The commerce ministry issued a statement saying the new duties would be applied if Washington pulled the trigger on President Donald Trump's threat to raise tariffs on 200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

The statement said China reserves the right to apply "other countermeasures".

Turkey was on Thursday drawing up retaliatory measures after Washington slapped sanctions on two Turkish ministers in the one of the biggest crises between the two NATO allies in recent years.

Tensions have soared over Turkey's detention on terror charges of American pastor Andrew Brunson, who was first held in October 2016 and was moved to house arrest last week.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. tech giant Apple became the first American company that saw its market cap hit 1 trillion U.S. dollars in the U.S. history after its shares rose 2.8 percent to a session high of 207.05 dollars around midday trading on Thursday.

Investors pushed Apple's market capitalization over the 1-trillion-dollar threshold amid expectations of new iPhones to be launched this fall, plus a record third-quarter financial report that the California-based company garnered a whopping 53.3 billion dollars in revenue.

SINGAPORE, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China and the European Union (EU) agreed here on Friday to join hands to promote multilateralism and support free trade.

The agreement came as Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Federica Mogherini, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Council on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' meeting and related meetings.

SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have arrived at a single draft negotiating text of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday.

Wang made the remarks at the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting.

The draft text will serve as the basis of future COC negotiations.

It is another significant progress on the negotiations of COC, Wang noted.

1 Aug 2018; DW; Humanity has already used up more resources this year than our planet can regenerate. Each year, Earth Overshoot Day comes earlier. Many say it's time to radically rethink our consumption patterns and economic system.

As of Wednesday, August 1, 2018, we have officially used up all of the Earth's resources for the year — and there are still five months left to go.

By Elena Teslova

2 Aug 2018; AA; MOSCOW; Russian lawmakers have criticized a U.S. move to impose sanctions on two Turkish Cabinet members as "counterproductive and destructive".

Alexay Chepa, the deputy head of the International Committee of the State Duma, said in an interview with Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that imposing sanctions had become "kind of a U.S. routine".

"Every day we hear some news that the U.S. either impose sanctions or announces a trade war against those who do not want to act as the U.S. wants," Chepa said.